Analysis, design, and implementation of a random frequency PWM inverter

Random pulse width modulation (RPWM) approaches can make the harmonic spectrum of inverter output voltage be continuously distributed without affecting the fundamental frequency component, and thus the acoustic noise and mechanical vibration of an inverter-fed AC motor drive are greatly reduced. However, the analysis and design of the RPWM mechanisms are generally not so trivial for practical engineers that their applications are limited. In this paper, a random frequency PWM (RFPWM) inverter and its practical design procedure are presented. First, the effects of the attributes of a random signal on the inverter output harmonic spectrum distribution characteristics are analyzed using an intuitive concept, then based on which, the quantitative design. Simulink simulation and implementation of the proposed RFPWM inverter are introduced. The proposed RFPWM inverter is employed to power an indirect field-oriented induction motor drive. The simulated and measured results indicate that the uniform random distribution of inverter output harmonic spectrum and thus smaller acoustic noise and mechanical vibration are obtained by the proposed RFPWM scheme.